Troubleshooting

Having a problem with an Apple device, Mac system software, or iOS? Maybe your Mac is behaving weird, or your iPhone isn’t charging properly, or an iPad app is crashing, or something is just not working as expected? Browse through and search our troubleshooting articles and you might be able to resolve the problem!

Search Troubleshooting

Fix iTunes Network Connection Timed Out & Error -3259 During iPhone Update

Nov 18, 2010 - 123 Comments
iTunes

Some users report variations of a “Network Connection Timed Out” error when trying to update their iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to a newer version of iOS or even when attempting to connect to the iTunes Store. Errors include but are not limited to: “There is a problem downloading the software” “Network Connection Timed Out” … Read More

How to Reset PRAM on a Mac

Nov 15, 2010 - 51 Comments
Finder icon on the Mac

Resetting your PRAM (or NVRAM) is a common troubleshooting technique when a Mac is misbehaving. We’ll cover how to reset PRAM on any Mac, as well as providing some additional information about PRAM and what it is to better help you understand when and why you’d want to reset it.

How to Get a Refund for an iPhone App

Nov 13, 2010 - 22 Comments

If you bought an iPhone app and it didn’t work on your device due to technical failures or limitations, or perhaps the app purchase was made in error by a child or someone else using your device, you may be eligible for a refund from Apple. Apple will selectively refund app purchases, though it’s not … Read More

Fix Letterbox Mail plugin for Mac OS X 10.6.5

Nov 11, 2010 - 58 Comments

Update 2: LetterBox for Mac OS X 10.6.7 has been released and it resolves the latest incompatibilities. If you’d rather fix the plugin yourself, follow the instructions below but use these two UUID’s instead: 9049EF7D-5873-4F54-A447-51D722009310 1C58722D-AFBD-464E-81BB-0E05C108BE06 Thanks to Vincent for providing the UUID’s in the comments! Update: A new version of Letterbox for Mac OS … Read More

Apple’s Dead Pixel & Stuck Pixel Policy

Nov 4, 2010 - 7 Comments

Wondering what to do about a dead pixel or stuck pixel on an Apple device? Apple’s internal policy on dead and stuck pixels has been revealed. Titled “Acceptable numbers of pixel anomalies”, the internal document explains Apple’s policy on what they call pixel anomalies and how they handle repairs or replacements.

Disable Adobe CS4/5 internet access and update downloads for service extensions

Oct 20, 2010 - Leave a Comment

Adobe Creative Suite (CS) will automatically connect to the internet and attempt to initiate connections with Adobe Online Services and Service Update, this will happen regardless of you disabling the updates within the Adobe preferences for some reason. If you want to turn off the ability for Adobe CS to access the online services, kuler … Read More

Disable AirPort Base Station Agent

Oct 13, 2010 - 12 Comments

AirPort Base Station Agent runs in the background of Mac OS X whether or not you use an AirPort Base Station. It’s a part of Mac OS X, and as the name implies it handles Airport Base Station connections as well as connections to Time Capsule. If you use either of these Apple products you’ll … Read More

Uninstall Akamai Download Manager and com.akamai.client.plist

Oct 7, 2010 - 19 Comments

If you’ve downloaded something from Adobe recently you may have unintentionally installed Akamai Download Manager. Akamai is a helpful content delivery network (at least for the web), but for whatever reason the Akamai Download Manager that is used and packaged with Adobe software often goes haywire on a Mac with usage spikes and random internet … Read More

Troubleshoot a Mac with AppleJack

Sep 21, 2010 - Leave a Comment

AppleJack is a really handy troubleshooting utility for Mac that works even if you can’t load the Mac OS X GUI. Running in Single User Mode, it’s a simple menu-based tool to run a series of tests and repairs on the Mac OS. With AppleJack you can easily: * Repair Disk * Repair Disk Permissions … Read More

Free Anti-Spyware for Mac

Sep 20, 2010 - 15 Comments

Who doesn’t love free software? MacScan is a full service anti-spyware detection tool for Mac OS X and for a short time is available entirely for free, so you need to jump on this one quick. For a limited time only (just today: 9/20) you can download this anti-spyware tool for FREE. Get the free … Read More

“Another device on the network is using your computer’s IP address” Mac Error Fix

Sep 19, 2010 - 37 Comments

This is a rather strange error message which you may see in Mac OS X, you’ll get the notification “Another device on the network is using your computer’s IP address” and then you’ll lose internet access with the dialog box telling you to try connecting again later. No thanks, we need internet access now! So … Read More

Fix Pandora song skipping on iPhone

Sep 13, 2010 - 6 Comments

For whatever reason since updating to iOS 4.0 Pandora has been misbehaving on both my iPhone and iPod touch. If you haven’t run into this basically what happens is a few songs will play normally before they start to skip and stutter, for some songs it almost sounds like it’s part of the song, but … Read More

How to Repair MP3’s

Aug 30, 2010 - 3 Comments

If you have MP3’s that are skipping, sounding weird, or that a media player like iTunes won’t open, sometimes you just need to run them through an MP3 validator app to check and repair the files. A great free MP3 checker is called MP3 Scan+Repair, it’s got an easy drag and drop interface that will … Read More

iTunes Won’t Play a Song or Add MP3? Here’s a Simple Fix

Aug 17, 2010 - 27 Comments

I recently encountered a strange bug where iTunes refused to add a song to it’s playlist and wouldn’t play the original source MP3 file either. Interestingly enough, the mp3 file played fine with Quick Look and even was able to play within the Finder preview, but no matter what I did I could not add … Read More

The Mac Task Manager

Aug 15, 2010 - 47 Comments

Many new Mac users are coming from the Windows world where they would access the Task Manager to end tasks and stop errant processes. The Mac has it’s own Task Manager but it goes by another name: Activity Monitor. Activity Monitor functions in a very similar way to how Task Manager does in Windows, letting … Read More

Forgot Mac Password? How to Reset Your Mac Password (with or without CD)

Aug 10, 2010 - 506 Comments

So you forgot your Mac password… uh oh. Don’t worry, it happens and you aren’t out of luck. You’ll need to reset the forgotten password and there’s several ways to do this, we’ll focus on the three best methods; the first is dirt simple and will utilize the Apple ID (yes, the same on you … Read More

Repair Disk Permissions from the Command Line in Mac OS X

Aug 10, 2010 - 11 Comments
Use Disk Utility to erase free space on a Mac hard drive

In some situations, you may need to repair a Macs disk permissions but be unable to access the Disk Utility app, perhaps due to remote management or because of a problem with something in OS X. Fortunately there’s another method you can use to repair disk permissions in Mac OS X, accessible through the command … Read More

mds – what MDS process is and why it uses CPU on the Mac

Aug 5, 2010 - 47 Comments

If your Mac is suddenly running sluggish and you launched Activity Monitor, you may notice a process named ‘mds’ cranking away at 30% and even up to 90% CPU utilization. If you see this, don’t worry, it’s not abnormal behavior and your Mac isn’t crashing, it’s just indexing it’s built in search engine. What is … Read More

Subscribe to OSXDaily

Subscribe to RSS Subscribe to Twitter Feed Follow on Facebook Subscribe to eMail Updates

Tips & Tricks

News

iPhone / iPad

Mac

Troubleshooting

Shop on Amazon to help support this site